THE MEDIUM IS NOT THE MESSAGE

The Canadian philosopher, scholar, literary critic, and communications theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "The Medium is the Message." This phrase means that the medium through which a message is conveyed tends to dominate the content of the message itself. That is, the medium has a greater impact on our perception and behavior than the ideas and information it carries. People immediately see an image but must think for a while to understand the message that the image conveys. Jesus often spoke in parables: "A sower went out to sow the seed, and some fell on a footpath, shallow ground, among weeds, or on good soil" (Mark 3:1-13). But most often the crowds and even His disciples didn't get the point, so He would have to explain it. The word-pictures immediately resonated with them, but what did they mean?

In a recent First Things article, I read that in American conservatism – "a fissure that has been widening for years: a clash between two visions of the right, one grounded in universal moral principle, the other in cultural and civilizational loyalty." The latter phrase – "cultural and civilizational loyalty" – refers to the linguistic and ethnic traditions of our society. But there needn't be a "fissure," a contradiction, between these and "universal moral principle." The problem is that they're confusing the medium with the message. Our idioms of speech, food, clothing, even our facial features and skin color, convey the message of what is near and dear to us, but are not the same as faith, freedom, and truth. We tend to prefer people "like us" and dislike those who are "different." A weakness of human reasoning is that we tend to think in terms of either-or logic. It's harder to think in both-and, "synthesis" logic. Faithfulness between my wife and me is not the same thing as liking her face, voice, rosy cheeks and the food she prepares for me, but they belong together.

In our churches, we become familiar with and fond of the style of music, the (usually somewhat lofty and archaic) language, the phrases, the clergy's special robes, the incense, stained glass, and the architecture. These things are intended to help convey the message but are not identical with the message, the doctrinal truths about God, the Incarnation of Christ, forgiveness, salvation, and the pursuit of holiness. The melodies and instruments (or none), whether the language is of an old "mother country" or Latin, Greek, or the local dialect – these all are parts of the medium, the vessels that carry the content, the message. Orthodox churches in Africa use drums and dance to convey the message, but in the U.S. we usually sing a capella.

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller recently said that “in twenty to thirty years, Islam could become the dominant religion” in Germany. How could this happen, that by 2050 Germany will become Germistan, France will become Frankistan, and Britain will become Britistan? It is already happening: London itself is already "Londistan" – more than 50% are not native English. The majority of young schoolchildren in many major European cities are Muslim kids. It is because the elite leadership of most European countries have completely bought into the worldview of vague generalities: democracy, liberty, equality, brotherhood of all nations, and multi-culturalism. But this ignores one essential thing: what is the foundation?

The foundation of European (and all Western) civilization is Christianity. But in the last century or so, this foundation has been undermined and eroded, especially in Europe, so that the generalities of democracy, liberty, equality, and brotherhood cannot withstand the vast flood of Muslim migration and the violent, exclusive doctrines of Islam. Similar to original Christianity, Islam is an exclusive religion. But when Islam becomes the majority, it does not does not treat other religions equally. Original Christianity's exclusivity, however, generally tolerated the presence of other religions. But beginning with the French Revolution, secularism began to spread throughout the West, undermining the moral and spiritual foundations.

What must be done? "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). David, who wrote this Psalm, wasn't a weak-kneed hand-wringer, he was king and military leader. To him, the answer was obvious: we must rebuild the foundations! We need to re-establish genuine Christian communities where people believe in and live by a shared creed. The only creed in common between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Various churches may have other creeds or statements of faith that are more or less similar to this one, but the Nicene Creed is the only creed that Orthodox, Catholics, and most Protestants can jointly agree on.

People sometimes hold onto the outward language, symbols and rituals of religion long after they cease to truly believe in and live by the doctrines their religion teaches: the medium has dominated and overwhelmed the message. Often in the Old Testament the people of Israel fell into idolatry, while maintaining their Temple ceremony, holy days, and sacrifices. We need to re-establish Christian communities in which we live in close proximity and encourage one another to really live in agape-love, according to what we say we believe, and to reach out to "the poor, maimed, blind, and lame." And we must teach and raise up our children to understand and believe in our shared faith.

We have developed a plan and design for such accessible and inclusive "Agape Restoration Communities." Please read "Building the ARC" and download the PDF file! This will take alot of self-discipline, commitment, sacrifice, and just plain hard work to rebuild the foundations, just like it took much effort and withstanding ridicule for Noah to build the Ark. But it must be done, because the alternative of letting our society crumble around us while we hang onto the status-quo is unthinkable.

Pray for a spiritual awakening, for Christians to return to the principle doctrines and practices of our faith, to live out what we believe.

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